Kauntikas (Indian Spearmen)
These men, armed with spears and protected by shields, are the mainstay of the Indian infantry. Description These men, armed with spears and protected by shields, are the mainstay of the Indian infantry. Most of these men are not part of the Kshatriya warrior caste, but can be men of varying origin who have taken up arms. Their spears, which they wield in an underarm position, are made of wood or bamboo, with iron spearheads. Barbed spearheads are known to have been used, but pictorial sources provide evidence for a multitude of different types. The shields are flat and bell-shaped, some of them with painted patterns, while others are just reinforced with leather straps. It seems likely that this type of shield was actually strapped to the arm, making it easier to block with. Most of the warriors are dressed in their everyday clothing, which includes loincloths, skirts, and short-sleeved shirts. The majority would have fought bare-chested, however. Some of the warriors wear a simple type of armour corselet, made from strips of hardened leather and tied at the back by what is in the epics referred to as a corselet strap. This type of armour can, for instance, be seen on some of the warriors on the reliefs on the Toranas at Sanchi. Some of them wear turbans, which might have been used to deaden the blows of blunt weapons, while others have the characteristic Indian hair knot. These were sometimes tied up with cloth to form a simple type of turban. These warriors are neither the best nor the bravest men in the Indian armies. They are primarily meant to add mass to the infantry formations, where they do a decent job holding the line, but cannot be expected to defeat better trained warriors, and nor are they suitable as assault infantry. Such roles are better filled by macemen or swordsmen. Historically, spearmen were some of the most common warriors in Indian armies, which is attested to by their prevalence on murals and reliefs, and the fact that the epics list a plethora of different names for designating various types of spears, such as barbed spears, throwing spears, pikes and metal spears. The spear remained primarily an infantry weapon, and was generally not considered as heroic as the bow, or melee weapons that put more emphasis on individual combat skills, such as the mace or sword. In the classical "Four-Armed Army", or Caturangabala, the infantry was one of the four main arms. Even though Kautilya, the author of the Arthashastra, proposed that an army should preferably be made up entirely of Kshatriyas, most armies probably contained large contingents of members of other castes as well, especially after the ascension of Buddhism during Mauryan times. The Seleukid ambassador Megasthenes reported in c. 300 BC that Chandragupta had over 600,000 infantrymen under his command, and most of these were probably levies armed with whatever they had to hand. Spears and shields were cheap and easy to make, and spearmen would likely have made up a large part of the melee infantry. Other empires that conquered India also made use of the warriors they could muster there. Indian warriors were likely present at Thermopylai as part of the Achaemenid army, and later dynasties that ruled north-west India, such as the Baktrians, Sakas and Kushanas, were not slow to incorporate these warriors into their armies. EB2IndianSpearmen.jpg|Render Category:Units Category:Units available only in EB2 Category:Baktria Category:Takashila